Britain-based mmO2 said today it had chosen Nortel Networks and Nokia to be the main suppliers for its next-generation networks.
MmO2, Europe's fifth-largest mobile phone operator, also said it planned to outsource all its Dutch network operations to Ericsson and that equipment spending would be €2.2 billion.
The mobile phone operator, demerged from BT last November, placed its equipment contracts under review late last year to leverage its newly unified management across Ireland, Britain, Germany and The Netherlands.
Nortel will supply a GPRS network, seen as the stepping stone to even faster third-generation (3G) networks, across all the territories. The Canadian group will also supply 3G core network infrastructure in Ireland, Britain and Germany and a minimum of 30 per cent of the 3G base stations.
Finland's Nokia will provide a minimum of 30 per cent of the 3G radio equipment. Nokia will also retain all its existing radio equipment business, which is about 70 per cent of the total, with the chance to increase it.
In line with most other operators, mmO2 does not expect 3G handsets to start selling in volume until the middle of 2003 - a delay of about half a year from earlier expectations.